I recently worked on the wiki Brodiaea page so spent a lot of time looking at the Jepson eflora key. There have been a lot of new species named in the past number of years, mostly on small morphological differences and I think this makes identification really challenging for some of them, especially since some of these species occur in many parts of the state and there is considerable variation in nature and that makes writing a key practically impossible. If you have grown bulbs from seed and there used to be sources of wild collected seed, a lot probably depended on where the seed came from. If plants that were once grown from seed that was considered to be B. californica, but now that has morphed into a new species, most people will continue to call it what they knew it to be. I've tried to add photos with shared licenses to the wiki to help figure the species out. I decided to write more about B. purdyi, B. minor, B. nana on the wiki since it took me some time to thoroughly understand that change. I grew two versions of B. purdyi from Robinett and purchased B. minor from Telos. Robert Preston in 2006 published a paper entitled "A Reconsideration of Brodiaea minor (Benth.) S. Watson and Brodiaea purdyi Eastwood (Themidaceae), with the resurrection of Brodiaea nana Hoover". In it he concluded: ""The results of this paper demonstrate that Niehaus’s (1971) concept of B. purdyi, the polyploid small-flowered species, with spreading perianth lobes and floral tubes that are narrowed above the ovary, and that occurs in woodland habitats in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills, applies to the taxon originally described as B. minor and as recognized by Jepson (1922) and Hoover (1939), placing B. purdyi in synonymy with B. minor." So to correct this B. purdyi became B. minor. But he felt the plants then known as B. minor were distinct so he resurrected the name B. nana for them. The two species are very similar: Staminode tips erect to spreading , margins 3/4 inrolled; stamens narrow-notched at apex between anther sacs; filaments T-shaped in ×-section = B. minor (was B. purdyi) Staminode tips erect, margins flat to 1/2 inrolled; stamens wide-notched between anther sacs; filaments V- or Y-shaped in ×-section = B. nana (was B. minor) These are not large flowers and I find the distinction between 1/2 to 3/4 in the margins challenging and definition of wide to narrow notched a bit subjective. I changed the names on the wiki according to how they had been identified in the past, hoping that was correct. https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… The Flora of North America seems to be slow to accept all these changes, but Jepson and Kew have. Now that I finally changed them on the wiki after putting it off for years, DNA work will probably change the names again. It's been a very dry year for where I live which has been a very positive thing for my bulb collection. We've had a little late rain as well so flowers that didn't have enough light to flower before or were wiped out by the rain or dried up too soon have been putting on quite a show. I have seen two southern California Brodiaea species flower that I haven't seen for years so obviously they liked it better. And just opening is what I've labeled B. jolonensis and I'd say the violet staminodes are twice as long as the style on my plants. B. terrestris ssp. kernensis also has violet staminodes that are hooded (and taller than the style), but the staminodes are notched. As for whether Brodiaea, Dichelostemma, and Triteleia are easy to grow probably depends on the species, the provenance and your climate. Many of the species grow in large portions of California and sometimes Oregon so the conditions they are used to vary greatly. On the other hand I find it fascinating that I have had such good luck with B. terrestris ssp. kernensis which is a Southern California species and terrible luck with the one that grows a five minute walk from my house (in the baseball/soccer field and is flowering wonderfully this year since they haven't mowed). I've saved seed and planted in my grassy areas, unwatered in summer, but rarely see any of it. So maybe using this logic Nan needs to try Northern California species. On another interesting note and going along with the comments from Jane and Robin about how some of these tolerate water when dormant, I noticed some Brodiaea elegans growing in a Meyer lemon tub a number of years ago. Almost every year a few of them flower, but last fall we repotted the lemon as the tub it was in was coming apart and added some new soil. Apparently either the new soil and/or the dry spring has been to its liking as we have about 110 flower stalks (my husband counted for me) at the moment. I'm sure the roots of the lemon plant add some air and our summers are a bit cooler than a lot of California, but the pot gets watered a lot during our dry summers. I've attached a photo of it and the Brodiaea jolonensis that I photographed yesterday. Sorry this is so long. Mary Sue -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Brodiaea_elegans_in_lemon.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 279751 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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